Challenges

1 Peter 4:10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace.

One of my favorite things to do when I’m camping is get the fire started. To be clear, I’m not saying have a lit fire. What I’m saying is that I enjoy the process of taking random scraps of wood, pinecones, or whatever else I can find, and use it to create a campfire. I have the most fun when the challenge is the greatest: when the logs might be slightly wet, when I don’t have enough small sticks, or when I don’t have paper or dry pine needles to create my starter.

This challenge is also unnecessary, though. I’ve had people watch me try to light a fire under less than optimal circumstances with less than optimal resources and they’d question whether I knew how to light a fire at all, or whether I even knew how fire worked. They question why I’d make things more complicated when 9 times out of 10, I had access to the proper tools to get the job done quickly and efficiently. They make a valid point.

Too often in our lives we attempt to accomplish tasks that we are not properly equipped to take on. We try to get by without the proper resources or tools. You may enjoy the challenge when you are trying to build a campfire, but it’s almost never enjoyable when it happens in real life.

The main idea of the sermon from this past Sunday was that we need to “arrange the wood” of our lives to give God the opportunity to show up. If I can press the analogy a bit further, we must also know what kind of wood we are working with. Our goal with the Engage series is to get you thinking about that second question: what gifts, skills, and abilities do you have that you can arrange to have maximum engagement in the mission of God?

I want to offer you a resource to help you discover how you are wired, so you can have that sort of maximum engagement. The New Testament tells us about spiritual gifts that all Christians have to help us accomplish the mission of God. Sometime in the next week, everyone at Restore will receive an email inviting you to take an online quiz that will help you discern which of these spiritual gifts you have received, and which ones you might not have received. My hope is that having a better understanding of those gifts will give you greater clarity on which challenges you should pursue, and which ones you may not have the resources to accomplish.

Together we will discover where we fit in the mission of God.